Boris saves Conservatives from humiliation

Boris Johnson was the saving grace for the Conservative Party yesterday when he managed to hold on by a narrow majority to the London mayoralty by 51.5% to 48.5% for Labour rival Ken Livingstone.

With the exception of Johnson’s election the two governing parties, the Conservative Party and Liberal Democrat Party had miserable elections on Thursday. Voters were clearly in the mood to punish them for the austerity measures being applied upon the economy and several recent government scandals and poor communications.

Labour candidates won the other two mayoralties on Thursday with Ian Stewart winning in Salford and Joe Anderson in Liverpool.

The final tally saw the Conservatives retain just 1,006 seats whilst they lost 403 seats. The Liberal Democrats did worse still, losing 329 seats and retaining just 438 seats. Meanwhile Labour won 824 seats, taking their tally of seats in this election to 2,156 seats.

In all, Labour increased the number of local councils they controlled by 32 to a total of 75 across the 181 councils up for election on Thursday.

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